The words stung Merrick more than they should have coming from a girl he hardly knew. “So.” He fiddled with a spoon to busy his rejected hand. “You said you talked to some people today?”
She sipped her tea, then referred to her notes. He was grateful she let him change the subject, though he had a feeling it wouldn’t last.
“The woman at the dance studio remembered her,” Coral said. “And your dad too.”
Merrick had forgotten his mom used to dance. He’d forgotten that she did anything before she was his mom.
“She said Lyn was one of the best talents she’d seen. Your dad observed every rehearsal. Every show. He even proposed to her here.”
“As in here, here?” He laid his palms flat on the table, his excitement growing.
Coral shook her head. “In this town, I mean. Supposedly they had some secret place they used to sneak off to. They were quite the sweethearts.”
He tried to imagine his parents like that. Holding hands and stealing kisses. He racked his brain for some spark of information he’d heard in passing. But his parents rarely told stories of their dating days. They’d fought for so long, he sometimes wondered what his mom had ever seen in Hiroshi to begin with.
Elizabeth returned with their food, giving Merrick a chance to imagine a life before his dad had become such a jerk. He couldn’t fathom it. Whatever his father was before, it was an act. In the after, he’d shown his true colors more times than Merrick could count.
“Enjoy, dears,” Elizabeth said before moving to wait on another table.
Merrick’s eyes grew wide. “I forgot they served whipped cream with the scones!” He took a big dollop off the top of the cream and shoveled it into his mouth.
Coral giggled.
Satisfied with the move Grim would have been proud to witness, Merrick relaxed and waited for Coral to tell him more. He could listen to her talk all day. There was something about her voice that made everything that had happened over the past six months seem less trying. Conquerable.
“So my theory is she didn’t leave town at all,” Coral said after swallowing her bite of scone and marmalade. “That she’s hiding in plain sight. Kind of like you.”
Merrick glanced at her meticulous notes. She’d done more work than he’d given her credit for. And what had he given her? Some tea and scones and a chicken potpie? He owed her the truth. They hadn’t found his mom yet, but in the weekends they’d spent side by side, poring over ideas about his mom’s location and the interviews Coral had conducted, Merrick found he trusted her more than anyone.
“Coral.” He would tell her everything. Now. He wouldn’t do it as payment. He would do it because he—
“Have you ever considered she doesn’t want to be found?” Coral set her cup in its saucer, interrupting his thoughts with a clink. She scooted an inch to the right. Away from him.
The sudden barrier of oxygen between them felt stifling. Why did she do that? Put up a wall the second he started to get close?
“Why does everyone keep saying that?” His frustrations got the better of him but he didn’t hold back. “First Grim, now you? You don’t know her.”
“No. I don’t. But maybe you don’t either. You only think you know. You assume you understand. That you can fix everything with a happy family reunion or by playing Sherlock Holmes.”
Where had this come from? He’d thought she was on his side.
“If your mom wanted you,” Coral said, “she’d cross the ocean, search land and sea until she found you. Family doesn’t abandon family. Love doesn’t leave.”
“Says the girl who refuses to answer every time her sister calls.”
The betraying words left his mouth before he could swallow them. She’d shared that insight into her still-mysterious world last week, and now he’d used it against her. Shame fell over him, but he couldn’t take it back now.
“Coral, I’m sor—”
A crash resounded from the kitchen. A dropped dish? A broken pitcher?
Coral tossed her napkin onto the table and scooted to the other end of the booth. When she rose, Merrick caught a glimpse of the withdrawn girl he’d first met.
Now I’ve done it. Nice work, genius.
He should have told her about the prince then. It might have fixed what he’d ruined.
But Merrick remained quiet.
Coral waited a blink before leaving him alone at the pink booth with his half-eaten scones and untouched potpie.
He watched her escape, knowing every step she took away from him was one step closer to hiding in her shell for good.
Let her go. What do I care? She’s too sensitive. Can I be expected to handle her constant mood swings? Her up-and-down emotions?
The empty space beside him said everything.
It was no longer 100 percent about his mom. He liked the girl who related to him in a way no one else could. He liked her, emotions and mood swings and all, and he’d completely blown it.
“Will you be needing this to go, dear?” Elizabeth asked.
“Yes,” he said. Because he needed to go.
He’d fight for the girl who drove him insane and made him want to be better.
He’d do the thing she’d described if it came down to it.
Merrick would cross an ocean. He’d search land and sea.
He would not abandon her now. He had pinky promised, after all.
So he paid the bill and dove headfirst into what he was sure would end up as either (a) a complete disaster or (b) the best decision he ever made.
As he headed for the beach, Merrick was certain he heard the latter calling his name.
Thirty-One
Coral
What was it about being alone that grew stale after a spell?
Loneliness—solitude—was an enchantment, the curse Coral had subjected herself to and suddenly longed to break.
“True love makes life, even a broken one, worth fighting for.”
Coral heard her oldest sister’s words as if she were sitting in the sand beside her. She missed her desperately. Some days a new wave of grief would fold over Coral, pulling her into a tumult that was impossible to escape. Logic became nonexistent. There was no up, down, left, or right. She let that wave take her. She didn’t fight. She simply allowed it to consume every part that remained.
What would happen if I dove off the pier? If I went for a swim when the tides grow strong? Would anyone miss me? Would anyone care?
Coral took out her phone and checked her rather sad and friendless social media account. No tags. No notifications. It had been weeks since she’d submitted her entry to the Young Literary contest. Miss Brandes told her she should expect to see the finalist list posted by midsummer. Now it was the first week of July and still nothing.
Not that it mattered. What difference would winning a contest make?
Maybe it would mean I’m worth something. Maybe it would give me a reason to stay.
Coral stretched her legs before her in the damp sand. Bubbling foam washed over her feet. The ocean froze her skin, her muscles, her bones in time, providing relief and the most luxurious feeling of nothing. Her eyes closed and her thoughts wound back through the past months. The day of Red Tide. The night Merrick found her. Then the night he found her again. She’d agreed to help him, believing he’d lead her to the prince. Coral held her breath and went under, diving into what began as a means to an end.